Guide for watching sports

ABSTRACT

A guide for a sport such as football in which one team is on offense while the other is on defense has relatively stiff covers and leaves hinged in the covers and having creases on vertical lines. On the outer half of the front side of each sheet are printed the names of the offensive members of a particular team above the defensive members and on the back side the defensive members above the offensive members. By folding the pages inward, the members of the two teams will be shown with the defensive members of each team opposite the offensive members of the other team.

United States Patent Beebe, Jr. 1 Oct. 17, 1972 [54] GUIDE FOR WATCHING SPORTS 698,603 4/1902 Wiederseim ..283/63 7 l t 2] men or Box 2999 Primary Examiner-Lawrence Charles Attorney-Jennings Bailey, Jr. [22] Filed: Oct. 3, 1968 211 App]. No.: 764,877 [57] ABSTRACT A guide for a sport such as football in which one team is on offense while the other is on defense has relativelll 2834363512433 y stiff cpvers and leaves hinged in the covers and hav 58] Field 46 ing creases on vertical lines. On the outer half of the 281/1343 2 5 front side of each sheet are printed the names of the f 1 16/120 offensive members of a particular team above the defensive members and on the back side the defensive members above the offensive members. By folding the [56] References cued pages inward, the members of the two teams will be UNITED STATES PATENTS shown with the defensive members of each team opposite the offensive members of the other team. 462,956 ll/l89l McLoughln ..283/63 680,31 1 8/1901 Browne ..283/46 3 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures BROWNS CLEVELAND DA LLAS COWBOYS Z DEFENSE OFFENSE w \e -,/w

OEFENSE DEFENSE SCHEDUL SCHEDULE R 05'! ER ROG T E R PATENTEDBBH'HBR 3898.741

sum 1 or 2 BROWNS CLEVELAND DAL\.A5 COWBOYS OEFENSE DEFENSE SCHEDULE SCHEDULE ROSTER ROSTER BROWNS cow/80% OFFENSE DEFENSE I P OS NAME NAME DEFENSE OFFENSE Y i0. 20 NAME 2. o s. NAME /f I 2 I TNVEN'I'OR HARwoon BEEBE, JR.

BY Qwl'i, I

ATTORNEY PATENTEBum 1 1 I972 HARWOOD SHEEIEHFZ REFEREES OWNS coweovs RULES SIGNALS- ewes DEFENSE mil v DEFENSE OFFENSE ROSTER ROSTER INVENIOR BEEBE, JR.

MQY

ATTORNEY GUIDE FOR WATCHING SPORTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to a guide for sports in which one team is on offense while the other team is on defense, particularly football.

2. The Prior Art I am aware of various types of guides for assisting the user to follow a game such as football.

One guide of this type has sheets cut horizontally into two halves, with the players of one team on the top half of one sheet and on the bottom half and opposite side of another. sheet, the offensive players being listed at the left of the upper half sheet and at the right of the lower half sheet, and the defensive players occupying the other side of the half sheet.

With such an arrangement, it involves some manipulation to bring the proper half-sheets for two different teams into position. In addition, the insides of the covers, where information of a readily available sort may be printed, are normally entirely 'covered. Also, there is danger that even a slight breeze may turn one of the half-sheets unless the guide is firmly held by the user.

Another type of guide has covers and sheets all folded in the middle along a vertical line. The inner section of the outer half of each sheet carries the names and positions of the players, the offensive players being listed at the top and the defensive players at the bottom.

Such an arrangement has the disadvantage that the names of the players likely to be on the field at the same time are printed at substantial distances from each other diagonally across from each other on the two pages. Likewise, the fact that the covers are intended to be folded with the other sheets makes manipulation more difficult and also does not allow the insides of the covers to be used for providing readily available information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention a guide is provided which includes relatively stiff front and back covers, and inside pages creased along central vertical lines so as to be readily foldable in either direction towards the center. Each leaf has on the front outer half of each page the name of the club, the list of the first-string offensive team and below this the list of the first-string defensive team and in the bottom half the names of the players on the squad. On the outer half of the back side of the sheet are given a list of the firststring defensive players, below this a list of the firststring offensive players, and below this a list of the men on the squad. The inside half of each face may contain material of various sorts such as team records, the schedule and other information.

On the outer half of the inside of each of the covers there is printed material of general interest, such as illustrations and explanations of referees signals and penalties, rules, league records and the like.

The book is intended to be used by turning back on themselves the two sheets representing the teams involved in a particular game, and then folding under in one way or another all of the remaining sheets so that the outer halves of the insides of the covers are exposed and so that there is also shown the personnel of the two teams with the defensive unit ofone team opposite the offensive unit of the other team and vice versa.

Such an arrangement has advantages over the type of guides described above in that it is easier to manipulate so as to bring the sheets into their proper positions while at the same time leaving the back and front half covered, and at the same time it represents opposite each other the principal personnel who will probably be on the field at the same time, namely the regular offensive players of one team and the regular defensive players of the other team. Also, the material printed on the outer half ,of the inside of the covers is exposed at all times.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a guide according to the invention with the two central pages open. I

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the top central part of the guide shown in FIG. 1 with the outer halves of the pages folded in upon the inner halves and the other pages folded under.

FIG. 3 shows the arrangement in the same position as FIG. 2, but discloses the whole guide on a smaller scale.

FIG. 4 is a bottom end view of the guide with the sheets in the position of FIG. 1. 7

FIG. 5 is a bottom end view of the guide with the two central pages folded on themselves and the remaining pages folded under.

FIG. 6 is a bottom end view of the guide with the third and fourth pages folded over on themselves and the remaining pages folded under.

FIG. 7 is a view of the guide with the secondand fifth pages folded upon themselves and the remaining pages folded under.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The guide shown herein is, for simplicity, shown with only covers and eight sheets. Actually, there would be a sheet for each team in a particular league such as. the National Football League.

Referring now to the drawings, the guide includes relatively stiff cover members 2 formed for example of a single piece of moderately stiff cardboard or heavy paper folded along a line 4, and a plurality of sheets each hinged to the cover along the line 4 and each having an outer part 6a and an inner part 6b creased along vertical central lines 8 so as to be readily foldable in either direction. As is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the outer parts 6a carry on the front side at 10a the list of the offensive team giving the numbers, the players positions and the names and below that similarly the defensive team and finally the roster of players, while the back half carries at 10b the defensive team and below that the offensive team and the roster.

As a result of this, when the outer half of two sheets are folded inwardly towards each other from the position shown in FIG. 1 to the position shown in FIG. 2, there will be as shown in FIG. 2, a plain confrontation of the offense with the defense and vice versa so that the person watching a game will have the two clubs which are most likely to be on the field simultaneously appearing opposite each other and close together. Likewise, at 12a and 12b the outer halves of the inside of the covers are provided with information of a general nature such as referees signals and rules, and these are readily observable when the sheets are folded in the manner to be described below.

FIG. 4 shows a guide with eight pages in the open position before folding, and representing the same condition as is seen in FIG. 1. If now the teams shown on page 4 and 5 are playing each other, then as shown in FIG. 5 these two pages are folded inwardly towards each other and the remaining pages are folded upon themselves underneath pages 4 and 5. This is indicated in FIG. 5 by p4 and p5 representing pages 4 and 5 and pl-3 and p6-8 representing pages I to 3 and pages 6 to 8 In FIG. 6, pages p3 and p4 are shown folded inwardly with pl-2 and p4-8 folded underneath them.

FIG. 7 shows the manner of manipulation when two pages not facing each other are to be exposed, in this case pages 2 and 5. In this case, pages 2-4 are folded together so as to expose the front face of the outer half of page 2, pl is folded under this group of folded pages, p6-8 are folded underneath p5 which is folded upon itself.

While I have described herein some embodiments of the invention, I wish it to be understood that I do not intend to limit myself thereby except within the scope of the claims herein and hereinafter appended.

I claim:

1. A guide to be used in watching contests between teams having primarily different offensive and defensive personnel comprising a plurality of sheets secured in book form and each hinged along a vertical line intermediate the width of the sheet dividing the sheet into outer and inner halves; the outer half of each sheet carrying on one side a list of offensive players and a list of defensive players therebelow and carrying on the opposite side at substantially the same levels a list of defensive players and a list of offensive players therebelow.

2. A guide as claimed in claim 1 having relatively stiff back and front covers.

3. A guide as claimed in claim 2,'the outer half of the inside of each cover having informational material printed thereon. 

1. A guide to be used in watching contests between teams having primarily different offensive and defensive personnel comprising a plurality of sheets secured in book form and each hinged along a vertical line intermediate the width of the sheet dividing the sheet into outer and inner halves; the outer half of each sheet carrying on one side a list of offensive players and a list of defensive players therebelow and carrying on the opposite side at substantially the same levels a list of defensive players and a list of offensive players therebelow.
 2. A guide as claimed in claim 1 having relatively stiff back and front covers.
 3. A guide as claimed in claim 2, the outer half of the inside of each cover having informational material printed thereon. 